Indian Americans

For American Indians, see Native Americans in the United States or Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Indian American

Regions with significant populations
Northeast, California, Illinois, Texas
Languages
American English, Indian languages
Religion
Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, others

An Indian American (also called Asian Indian by the U.S. Census Bureau to avoid confusion with the "American Indians" so named by historical accident) is an American of Asian Indian descent. The phrase may refer to someone born in the United States of Indian descent or to someone who has immigrated to the United States from the Republic of India. A number of Indian Americans came to the U.S. via Indian communities in other countries such as Fiji, Kenya, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, Canada, Guyana and Mauritius. Indian Americans are mostly Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Christian and are the most highly educated American demographic[1]. Unlike other Asian Americans, they live spread out in the United States.

Population

Numbers

According to the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, the Asian Indian population in the United States grew from almost 1,678,000 in 2000 to 2,319,000 in 2005: a growth rate of 38%, the highest for any Asian American community, and among the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States after Hispanic Americans. Indian Americans are the third largest Asian American ethnic group, after Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans.

Settlement

U.S. states with the largest Indian American populations, in order, are California, New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Illinois.[2] There are also large Indian American populations in Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, Georgia and Virginia as well. The metropolitan areas with the largest Indian American populations are New York City, San Francisco/San Jose/Oakland, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington/Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Houston, and Atlanta. [3]. The town of Edison, New Jersey (total population 100,499) is 17.5% Indian American -- the highest percentage of any municipality in the United States.

In contrast with East Asian Americans, who tend to be concentrated in California and other areas near the Pacific coast, Indian Americans are more evenly distributed throughout the United States. [4]

Socioeconomic

Education

Indian Americans have the highest educational qualifications of all national origin groups in the United States. According to the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, there are close to 41,000 Indian American doctors. According to the 2000 census, about 64% of Indian Americans have attained a Bachelor's degree or more.[5](compared to 28% nationally). Almost 40% of all Indians have a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. (Source: The Indian American Centre for Political Awareness.) These high levels of education have enabled Indian Americans to become a productive segment of the American population, with 72.3% participating in the U.S. work force, of which 57.7% are employed in managerial and professional specialties[6].

Economics

According to the 2000 U.S. Census Indian Americans have the highest median income of any national origin group in the United States and Merrill Lynch recently revealed that there are nearly 200,000 Indian American millionaires. This is a striking contrast to the economic standard of living in India, where much of the population lives under poverty standards set by the United Nations. This phenomenon has led to many scholars to reaffirm the phenomenon of "brain drain" from India (source: Journal of Political Economy - University of Chicago Press).

Indian Americans own 50% of all economy lodges and 35% of all hotels in the United States, which have a combined market value of almost $40 billion. (Source: Little India Magazine). A University of California, Berkeley, study reported that one-third of the engineers in Silicon Valley are of Indian descent, while 7% of valley high-tech firms are led by Indian CEOs. (Source: Silicon India Readership Survey) In 2002, there were over 223,000 Asian Indian-owned firms in the U.S., employing more than 610,000 workers, and generating more than $88 billion in revenue.[7]

Culture

Food

Indian Americans have brought Indian cuisine to the United States, and it has become established as a popular cuisine in the country, with hundreds of Indian restaurants and eateries nationwide. There are many Indian markets and stores in United States. Some of biggest Indian markets are in Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York City, the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and Edison, New Jersey. Areas with a significant Indian market presence also include Devon Avenue neighborhood/market in Chicago and Pioneer Blvd. in the Los Angeles region. Other predominantly Indian neighborhoods are Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey, Jackson Heights in Queens, New York and Hilcroft Avenue in Houston, Texas.

Entertainment

There are Hindi radio stations in areas with high Indian populations, including Radio Humsafar, Radio Salaam Namaste, FunAsia Radio. There are also Tamil radio stations in the United States [8].

Several cable and satellite providers offer Indian channels: Asianet, Sun TV, Star TV, TV Asia, Zee TV, Sony TV, NDTV and Gemini. Others have offered Indian content for subscription, such as when India played Australia for the Cricket World Cup in 2003.

Many metropolitan areas with high Indian-American populations now have movie theatres specialized for showing Indian movies (primarily Hindi/Bollywood and in the South Indian languages of Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. Silicon Valley, for example has two such multiplexes: one in Fremont and one in San Jose). The Dallas - Ft.Worth Metroplex has a "Desi" Multiplex called Amar Akbar Anthony in the Richardson township. The area also has a movie theatre that plays Indian movies, FunAsia. In 2006, the first 24 x 7 Desi F.M. station in North America was launched, Radio Salaam Namaste 104.9 FM, in the Dallas area.

In July 2005, MTV premiered a spin-off network called MTV Desi which targets Indian Americans. [9]

Religions

As of 2000, the American Hindu population was around a million, making around 60% (probably less if non-Indian adherents are subtracted) of Indian Americans as Hindu [10][11][12]. There are many Hindu temples across the United States. ISKCON, Swaminarayan Sampraday, BAPS Sanstha, Chinmaya Mission, and Swadhyay Pariwar are well-established in the U.S.. In larger percentages and numbers than in India, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Jains, Muslims, and Christians from India have also established their religions in the country. There are many Indian Christian churches across the US; Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Knanaya catholic, Indian Orthodox Church, Mar Thoma Church (reformed orthodox), Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church, Knanaya eastern orthodox, Church of South India, The Pentecostal Mission,India Pentecostal Church of God, and there are also a number of Indian Christians in mainstream american churches. Among Indian Muslims the prominent organizations include the Indian Muslim Council - USA. A large percentage of American Muslims are of Indian Origin.

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Swami Vivekananda brought Hinduism to the West at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions[13]. The Vedanta Society has been important in subsequent Parliaments. Today, Hinduism is among the fastest-growing religions in the United States and many Hindu temples, most of them built by Indian Americans have emerged in different cities and towns of America. [14] [15] Hindu philosophy and spirituality has greatly influenced American life. More than 18 million Americans are now practicing some form of Yoga. [16] In particular, Kriya Yoga was introduced to America by Paramahansa Yogananda. In addition, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada initiated a popular ISKCON also known as Hare Krishna movement while preaching Bhakti yoga.

Ethnicity

Like the terms "Asian American" or "South Asian American", the term "Indian American" is also an umbrella label applying to a variety of views, values, lifestyles, and appearances. Although Asian-Indian Americans retain a high ethnic identity, they are known to assimilate into American culture while at the same time keeping the culture of their ancestors. They may assimilate more easily than many other immigrant groups because they have fewer language barriers (English is widely spoken in India among professional classes), more educational credentials (immigrants are disproportionately well-educated among Indians), and come from a similarly diverse, tolerant, and democratic society.

While most of the early Indian immigrants were Punjabi and Gujarati, there has been a recent influx of Telugus, Tamils, Malayalees, Kannadigas, Bengalis, Maharashtrians, and many other cultural and ethnic groups in addition to them.

The United States is also home to associations of Indians united by ethno-linguistic affiliation. The big organizations include Cultural Association of Bengal and their annually sponsored event the North American Bengali Conference, Telugu Association of North America, American Telugu Association, Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, Gujarati Samaj, Brihan Maharashtra Mandal(BMM), which is holding its 13th biennial convention at Seattle, Washington this year; Kaveri Kannada Sangha and Kannada Koota, Prabashi, Federation of Kerala Associations of North America(FOKANA) and different local Malayalee samajams. These associations generally put on cultural programs, plays, and concerts during the major Hindu festivals (Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Pongal, Baisakh) and other religious(i.e. Christian) and cultural events(Christmas, Onam, Vishu, New Years).

Language

Indian Americans often keep hold of their native Indian tongues or any of the other plethora Indian languages.

History and immigration

For main article see Indian American history

Timeline

• 1790 The first known Indian immigrant entered the United States as a maritime worker.
• 1917 The Barred Zone Act passes in Congress through two-thirds majority, overriding President Woodrow Wilson's earlier veto. Asians, including Indians, are barred from immigrating to the U.S.
• 1923 The US Supreme Court rules that people from India (at the time, British India, e.g. South Asians) are aliens ineligible for citizenship in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. Bhagat Singh Thind becomes a citizen a few years later in New York--he had earlier applied and been rejected in Oregon.[17]
• 1928 Dhan Gopal Mukerji wins the Newbery Medal, and thus becomes the first successful India-born man of letters in the United States.
• 1943 Republican Clara Booth Luce and Democrat Emanuel Celler introduce a bill to open naturalization to Indian immigrants to the US. Prominent Americans Pearl Buck, Louis Fischer, Albert Einstein and Robert Millikan give their endorsement to the bill. President Franklin Roosevelt also endorses the bill, calling for an end to the "statutory discrimination against the Indians".
• 1946 President Harry Truman signs into law the Luce-Celler Act of 1946, returning the right to Indian Americans to immigrate and naturalize.
• 1956 Dalip Singh Saund elected to the US House of Representatives from California. He was re-elected to a 2nd and 3rd term, winning over 60% of the votes. He is also the first Asian immigrant to be elected to Congress.
• 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signs the INS Act of 1965 into law, eliminating per-country immigration quotas and introducing immigration on the basis of professional experience and education.
• 2005 US Congress passes House Resolution 227 honoring Indian Americans.

Classification

Main article: Racial classification of Indian Americans

Indian Americans are currently classified as Asian Americans by the United States Census Bureau. In the past, however, they have been variously classified as Hindu (Hindu being an archaic term for an inhabitant of the Indian sub-continent), preventing them from owning land in some areas, vote, or marry citizens or classified as Caucasian American until it was established that White American and Caucasian were interchangeable terms by convention for a single people which did not include Indians. According to a social scientist Rosanne Skirble, the term Caucasian is becoming less frequently used in favor of White American or European American.

Current social issues

Discrimination

Though rare, explicit discrimination is not unknown in the Indian American community. In the 1980s, a group known as the Dot Busters tried to intimidate Indian Americans in New Jersey, but the range and impact of the group's activities were limited. Since September 11, there have been scattered incidents of Indian Americans having been mistaken targets for hate crimes. In one example, a Sikh, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was murdered at a Phoenix gas station by a white supremacist. This happened after September 11, and the murderer claims that his his turban made him think he was an Middle Eastern American terrorist. In another example, a pizza delivery person was robbed and beaten in Massachusetts for "being Muslim" though he pleaded that he was in fact Hindu [18].

On April 5, 2006, the Hindu Mandir of Minnesota was vandalised on the basis of religious discrimination. The vandalisers damaged much of the temple property, including many statues that were specially transported from India. This caused $200,000 worth of damage.[19][20][21][22]

Immigration

Indians are among the largest ethnic groups migrating to the USA legally. Immigration of Indian Americans has taken place in many waves since the first Indian American came to the United States in the 1700s. A major wave of immigration to California from the soon-to-be Indian state of Punjab and the surrounding region took place in the first decade of the 20th century. Another significant wave followed in the 1950s, mainly students and professionals, including engineers. With the elimination of immigration quotas in 1965, even more Indians came to the US, followed by another wave in the late 1970s and early 1980s. With the technology boom of the 1990s, the largest influx of Indians arrived between 1995 and 2000.

Media

Further information: List of Indian American media

Indian Americans and/or their portrayal in the media.

• Dr. Sanjay Gupta physician and journalist for CNN
• Deepak Chopra, author and speaker, is a regular on many talk shows, including Larry King Live.
• Fareed Zakaria, is the editor of Newsweek International and the host of the PBS show Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria, as well as a frequent contributor to ABC News.
• Ravi Kapoor stars as Dr. Vijay or 'Bug' on Crossing Jordan.
• The famous drama CSI: Miami had Rory Cochrane who is half Indian for 3 seasons.
• Sanjaya Malakar, popular American Idol contestant
• Parminder Nagra is a British Indian who stars in the long time US drama ER.
• Mindy Kaling is a producer, writer and actress of the NBC sitcom The Office, playing Kelly Kapoor
• Kal Penn, actor
• Mira Nair is another Hollywood director who has tackled issues like inter-racial dating between an Indian American girl and an African American boy in Mississippi Masala, the life of slum dwelling children in Salaam Bombay and the ancient art of lovemaking in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. Her films have often tried to draw a colorful and vibrant picture of the Indian American community. The movie Monsoon Wedding has been a favorite DVD rental not just in the Indian American community but the US movie lovers in general for quite some time.
• Sunil Nayar an executive producer of CSI: Miami
• Naren Shanker writer and an executive producer of CSI
• M. Night Shyamalan is a famous Hollywood director well-known for making successful psychological thrillers, which often have a twist ending in them, such as The Sixth Sense and Signs.
• Namrata Singh Gujral
• Several Indian Americans have become recognizable faces in the Television Journalism too. The most notable among them are CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Aneesh Raman; and Fox News' 'Ooooma' Uma Pemmaraju.
• Asok the intern debuted on September 15, 2000 in the cartoon strip Dilbert by Scott Adams. Asok is a graduate from one of the Indian Institutes of Technology.
• Kevin Gnapoor (played by Rajiv Surenda) is a boisterous mathlete in the movie Mean Girls.
• Sayid Jarrah is portrayed by British Indian actor Naveen Andrews in the hit US series Lost
• Ben Javeri was a robotics expert (played by Fisher Stevens) in the 1986 movie Short Circuit and its 1988 sequel Short Circuit 2.
• Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Ph.D, is a character that appears on The Simpsons. He debuted on April 29, 1990, in the episode "Krusty Gets Busted", which was the 12th episode of the first season. Apu, originally from West Bengal, owns and runs the Kwik-E-Mart convenience store, in a nod to the large number of convenience stores and gas stations in the US operated by Indians.
• Raj, an Indian elephant, is a cartoon character on the animated series Camp Lazlo.
• Amita Ramanujan, a mathematician in the crime series Numb3rs portrayed by Navi Rawat
• Arkhad "Thorny" Ramathorn (played by Jay Chandrasekhar) plays a state trooper in Super Troopers.
• Mohinder Suresh, a genetic scientist in the hit series Heroes, portrayed by Sendhil Ramamurthy
• Aman Johal played the nerd Prem Lahiri in the 2005 film Bad News Bears

Politics

Several groups have tried to create a unified or dominant voice for the Indian American community in political affairs, including US India PAC. Additionally, there are also industry-wide Indian American groupings including the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin. Indian American voters have tended to vote overwhelmingly Democratic , according to the few exit polls that have targeted this community, but the Republican party has tried to target this community [23] and several prominent conservative activists are of Indian origin.

Indian American voters have shown support for both the Democratic and Republican parties and have had political candidates of both parties. A list of notable Indian American politicians and commentators can be found here - List of Indian Americans#Politics.

See also

• Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
• List of Indian Americans
• List of Indian American media
• Desi
• Hinduism in the United States
• Jainism in the United States
• Sikhism in the United States
• American-Born Confused Desi
• United States foreign born per capita income

Footnotes

http://www.ataworld.org/

External links

Associations

• Indian American Leadership Initiative
• Indian American Center for Political Awareness
• Association of Kannada Kootas of America
• South Asian Awareness Network Conference
• Tamil organization in the U.S.
• Kannada Speaking organization in the U.S
• Federation of Kerala Associations in North America
• Telugu associations in the U.S.
• Community for the Indians Returning to India from the U.S.
• Indian student associations in the U.S.
• South Asian Bar Association of Southern California
• Indian American Directory
• Asian Indian Women's Association of Michigan
• Baton Rouge Bengali Association of Baton Rouge
• American Telugu Association
• Telugu Association of North America

Articles

• Stereotypes in Schooling: Negative Pressures in the American Educational System on Hindu Identity Formation by Yvette Rosser

News

• Asian-Americans' diverse voices share similar stories
• The Indian-American population boom - September 01, 2006, Rediff.com
• CNN.com: "India's influence soars: The 'un-China' could be world's next economic superpower", June 18, 2006 (summary of TIME Magazine cover story)
• The Indian Express, Dec. 17, 2004: "Indians are No 1 among Asians in US, census shows"
• ModelMinority.com, March 10, 2004: "Indian-Americans Fear Outsourcing Impact: Worries about technical-job losses, discrimination" (reprint of March 3, 2004 Financial Times article by Amy Yee)
• Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-1965 (University of California at Berkeley's South/Southeast Asia Library's online exhibit, last updated Oct. 3, 2001)
• Newsweek, March 6, 2006: "My Two Lives" by Jhumpa Lahiri ('The Pulitzer-winning writer felt intense pressure to be at once 'loyal to the old world and fluent in the new.')